3,300+ Miles full of joy, pain, elation, frustration, reflection, and just plain hard work. That is what goes on when one bikes across America for a cause. I am not going to talk much about the trip itself here as many of you have read the blogs from that event (in case you haven’t www.bikeamericamission.org). But needless to say I am ready to put the bike down for awhile, at least as a primary means and end to my passions, because after all I did ride my bike to where I am writing this blog. I learned a ubiquitous principle from that long bike ride. “Any great thing is composed from a series of small, sometimes tedious, sometimes enjoyable tasks.” In that sense, biking across America is simply a series of bike rides with a focused direction. In the same sense, is perhaps then a meaningful life found in a series of small tasks with a focused direction toward an intended destination–be it physical, spiritual, emotional, or cognitive?

I found that the joy in the completion of the task–biking America–came only when thought of with the efforts it took to arrive and as I sit here now I joy more over the memory of whichever of those parts come to mind rather than of the whole. Life is in the Verbs, it is in what we are doing, who we are doing it for, and the manner in which we go about getting it done. Maybe you won’t ever take enough bike rides in a particular direction to cross America in that manner, but what will you do?

Personally, I am laying down my bike for the time being. I think I’ll try my hand at the marathon again. It got the better of me last time but now I know this foe a little better. I know what is coming. I know how to prepare. And, you know what, it is through a series of small repetitive efforts called training.

(Once again I am going to seek to raise funds for impoverished children through Compassion International, this time supporting their child survival program which is designed to fight the frightening figure that nine million children don’t make it to their 5th birthday…not if I can help it… a focused direction)